Speeches and Statements

News about Speeches and Statements, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Nov. 18, 2014

Middle school students from 10 schools in New York City area, members of New York Debate League, gather in Tarrytown, NY, for monthly tournament; in its fourth year of teaching children essentials of academic debate, New York league stands out for its inclusion of students from both Ivy League homes and those trying to become the first in their family to go to college. MORE

Jul. 10, 2014

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton is on public speaking circuit, making speeches that each command as much as $75,000; she is focusing on organizations whose goals are in line with the work of her family’s philanthropic foundation, the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation; unlike her parents, 100 percent of Chelsea Clinton's speech fees go directly to the foundation. MORE

May. 20, 2014

Ben S. Bernanke, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, is poised to make millions of dollars from speaking engagements this year. MORE

Mar. 2, 2014

Bruce Feiler This Life column discusses the art of giving the perfect Oscar acceptance speech; offers tips on how celebrities should present themselves during the 45-second speech. MORE

Jan. 16, 2014

Gail Collins Op-Ed column laments boring nature of State of the State addresses across country; holds such speeches are usually about everything, and therefore nothing; says exception in 2014 was Vermont Gov Peter Shumlin, who used entire speech to talk about state's heroin problem, therefore gaining local and national attention. MORE

Dec. 26, 2013

Henry Alford describes his experiences attending Toastmasters, an international organization that lets people practice speeches to one another, in order to overcome his fear of public speaking. MORE

Dec. 14, 2013

Diplomatic Memo on Pres Obama's eulogy of Nelson Mandela in Soweto, South Africa; says words, intended both as celebration of Mandela and chastisement of himself and African leaders for failing to live up to legacy, called for more accountability in sub-Saharan Africa; some see gap between Obama's words and deeds on continent. MORE

Dec. 6, 2013

New York City Mayor Michael R Bloomberg, in his first major goodbye speech, highlights what he says are the quintessential New York values that animated his mayoralty; delivers rare display of public emotion. MORE

Nov. 18, 2013

Editorial underscores the enduring power of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on eve of the anniversary of the speech; contends the speech is the pinnacle of American civic utterance. MORE

Nov. 17, 2013

For all of its famous brevity, the Gettysburg Address is not so simple or compact as it seems. MORE

Nov. 11, 2013

The filmmaker Ken Burns is starting a web project to encourage Americans to recite the Gettysburg Address. MORE

Aug. 28, 2013

Michiko Kakutani Critic's Notebook column holds that Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr's inspiring speech still resonates 50 years after its momentous delivery; notes that the most famous lines, which came in an extraordinary improvisation, are recited by schoolchildren and musicians alike, and his four words 'I have a dream' have become shorthand for King's commitment to freedom, social justice and nonviolence. MORE

Aug. 22, 2013

In 1964, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech at the New School. No audio record of that has been found, but the school has recovered a tape of a Q. and A. session that followed. MORE

Aug. 22, 2013

White House Memo; Pres Obama will commemorate 50th anniversary of March on Washington with a speech on the steps of Lincoln Memorial, putting Obama in the unenviable position of having to offer Americans a stirring, resonant moment in the very place where Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered one of America's greatest oratories. MORE

Jul. 12, 2013

Hillary Rodham Clinton, just several months after leaving State Department, has plunged into the lucrative world of paid speechmaking; joins branch of family business that has brought the Clintons more than $100 million since her husband left the White House in 2001; she commands about $200,000 per speech, and events are giving her large captive crowds as she considers running for president in 2016. MORE

Jul. 10, 2013

Recent American presidents are limiting their use of Oval Office address, increasingly opting for other modes of communication as cable and Internet compete for television viewers' attention; Pres Obama gave his only two prime-time addresses from Oval Office in 2010, tying number George W Bush gave at similar point in his presidency. MORE

Jun. 11, 2013

Op-Ed article by Prof Peniel E Joseph celebrates anniversary of Pres John F Kennedy's hastily-arranged national address on race on June 11, 1963, calling it perhaps single most important event in civil rights history; holds Kennedy successfully linked the fate of African-American citizenship to larger question of national identity and freedom. MORE

Jun. 9, 2013

Back-to-back speeches given by Pres John F Kennedy fifty years ago on civil rights and the Soviet Union, two of the finest presidential speeches of the 20th century, yielded immediate results; it is difficult to imagine a single presidential speech having a similar impact on history in today's political climate. MORE

May. 26, 2013

News analysis by David M Shribman, executive editor of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, examines significance of speech Vice Pres Lyndon B Johnson gave at Gettysburg on Memorial Day 1963, in which Johnson spoke about civil rights. MORE

Jan. 20, 2013

Op-Ed article by author Ronald C White Jr warns of dangers of second Inaugural Addresses, which have historically been forgettable; notes exception of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural, and examines why it succeeded. MORE

Sep. 30, 2012

Ted Widmer essay on how the idealistic vision of John Winthrop, one of America's most famous speechwriters and Massachusetts Bay Colony governor in 1630, continues to appeal to both Republicans and Democrats alike. MORE

Aug. 31, 2012

Check Point column analyzes incorrect or incomplete facts in Mitt Romney and Paul D Ryan's acceptance speeches at the Republican National Convention; notes that these misrepresentations seem to signal the arrival of a campaign in which fact-checking concerns have been largely set aside. MORE

Jun. 12, 2012

Op-Ed article by author and speechwriter Ted Widmer analyzes former Pres Ronald Reagan's famous speech imploring Soviet leader Mikhail S Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall; notes that Reagan wisely ignored his advisers, who recommended that he omit the speech's most enduring line. MORE

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Joseph J. Lhota on Tuesday delivered a speech criticizing Bill de Blasio and offered a forceful argument in favor of aggressive policing tactics and the expansion of charter schools. Read the entire text of his speech to the Association for a Better New York, with annotations for context and clarity.